The United Nations definition of "genocide" makes it clear that it does not just refer to killing people, but to the attempted extermination of a People by various means:

United Nations Convention on Genocide

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948.

Article 1The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.Article 2In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:* (a) Killing members of the group;* (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;* (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;* (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;* (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

According to this definition, all Canadians who know of or knew of genocidal practices may be considered complicit.

These are the issues that the United Nations is currently grappling with in respect to Canada. In response to UN concerns, Canada is implementing a payment program to pay off all people (still living) who attended residential schools, and have them sign a waiver against future litigation. However, Canada is failing to acknowledge genocide, and .... basically just implementing another coverup.

Currently the Haudenosaunee people are standing on their land at Six Nations and forcing Canada to pay attention to their legal claims. Currently they are protected by a police line (when necessary) to hold off the locals who challenge them.

It would take only a few seconds to turn that into an act of genocide ... if the police line turned to face Six Nations instead of Caledonians, and prevented food and medical supplies from reaching them. It is already questionably genocide: Many Haudenosaunee have had to give up their jobs to force Canada's attention on the land issue, and they are in a constant scramble for funds to buy food and shelter necessities.

The Canadian land claims system does not work and was not designed to work. Indigenous people are forced into poverty by our government in order to defend their rights and their land against our governments ... right now ... today ... in Caledonia, just outside Hamilton, 1.5 hrs. from Toronto:

"To keep going we need your continued help. Our people have left jobs and stayed for almost 6 months with no income to remain here on our reclaimed land. We have sacrificed everything to benefit all Indigenous people. We have put ourselves on the front line, day after day. We face the violence of financed hate mobs, phony charges by the Ontario Provincial Police, defiance of the laws by Ontario and Canada and orchestrated anti-Indian rhetoric by the corporate media. We need your help so we can continue this work. Send canned and fresh food, money, people with building materials to help us finish the houses. The Canadian and Ontario government want the whole issue of lands and resources being repossessed by Indigenous people to fizzle out and fall apart. They want to see us become laughing stocks. They want everyone to think that we can't work together to keep things going. We have no choice but to show that we can stand together through the hard times. We don't get any funds from the government like the people in Caledonia. We have to maintain ourselves with the little funding that the Six Nations community itself can provide. Our adversaries are getting millions to carry on their hate and constant attacks. We are fighting against multi-billion dollar corporate/government organizations working together against the Indians. We are getting nothing except what you send. Come stand with us. We have to keep working together to maintain our vigilance."

posted 03 September 2006 03:48 PM
saga, thanks for your persistence in posting updates, and for your many attempts to keep the last thread you started on topic.

Before this gets derailed, which I really hope it doesn't, I want to say to you that although I understand why you put a question mark after "Genocide" in your thread title, I want to tell you that it's dismaying that you, or anyone, would have to do this, in an attempt to appease those who challenge and disagree with the use of this kind of language.

There is no other word for what has been perpetuated historically, and what is still being perpetuated in the present by Canada, Canadian laws, politicians, and anyone else who has the power to change the situation, than genocide. Genocide is not a word to be used in only certain historical circumstances. It should be used when it's apt.

Your voice is a very important one here on babble, saga. Thank you for what you've contributed and I hope you stay here for a long while.

From: It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent - Q | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged

quote:Originally posted by bigcitygal:saga, thanks for your persistence in posting updates, and for your many attempts to keep the last thread you started on topic.

Before this gets derailed, which I really hope it doesn't, I want to say to you that although I understand why you put a question mark after "Genocide" in your thread title, I want to tell you that it's dismaying that you, or anyone, would have to do this, in an attempt to appease those who challenge and disagree with the use of this kind of language.

There is no other word for what has been perpetuated historically, and what is still being perpetuated in the present by Canada, Canadian laws, politicians, and anyone else who has the power to change the situation, than genocide. Genocide is not a word to be used in only certain historical circumstances. It should be used when it's apt.

Your voice is a very important one here on babble, saga. Thank you for what you've contributed and I hope you stay here for a long while.

Thanks bcg and eric!! My thanks also to the moderators of this forum who have been most supportive in bringing this topic to the Canadian public.

No, of course there is no other conclusion possible ... and it is my belief that readers will come to that conclusion as I have, but I'm trying to give them some room for discussion too.

I hope some of you can afford to drop a few bucks in Six Nations account. It is getting chilly and the unfinished houses on the site are not heated, and food is in short supply. Thanks again for your support. Their strength is that they maintain an "UNARMED" status, which thwarts Canada's desire to resort to armed invasion. The OPP already got a taste of hand-to-hand combat with them, and are not eager to repeat their experience! It took 5 burly OPP to get Hazel Hill down ... and only the appearance of a few Six Nations men to make them let her go, and the OPP ran like chickens! One youth was tasered 5 times to get him down (How many volts is that?) because he kept pulling them out and throwing them back at the officers.

Hours later ... THE WOMEN LINKED ARMS AND THE SIX NATIONS COMMUNITY FOLLOWED AND THEY WALKED THE POLICE OFF THE LAND ... peacefully ... mostly.

These people are STANDING for all Indigenous people... AND for ALL decent Canadians who love the land and want to restore Canada's honour.HONOUR SIX NATIONSHONOUR CANADASTOP GENOCIDE.HONOUR TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS.NEGOTIATE FAIRLY......................

Support Haudenosaunee Six Nations Reclamation in Caledonia with food and building supplies for the winter, for it is time to prepare, regardless of the government's schedule.

If you love the land, you will be glad you did:SPRAWL development has HALTED all along the Grand River, Orangeville to Lake Erie.If you live in the Grand River watershed, you already benefit from their efforts.

If you want the Haldimand land claim solved quickly and fairly ... stand with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy people of Six Nationsand the government will follow.

Across Canada, Indigenous families have been devastated for generations by residential schools, unemployment, impoverishment... one result is fewer elders. They have many young people - over half the population are children and youths.

Increasingly, the children and youth of today live in an environment steeped in traditional culture ... like this young man Youngblood ... Haudenosaunee 21st century ...

Tim and his camera have documented many incidents in Caledonia, and we are grateful for his work.

Throughout the spring, as I spent time on both sides of the barricades, I wondered where the decent people of Caledonia were who (I thought) should be calming the unruly ones at the front who were ... out of control verbally, hateful about Six Nations and directly to police who necessarily stood in front of them. As I watched timmer's videos I saw several decent people from Caledonia try. They were shouted down. They have been bullied into silence. A Six Nations supporter from Caledonia has been harassed away from and at her home repeatedly, a message to the whole town.

Two other objectors raised the issue of missing students who never returned from the schools and whose parents wonder, to this day, what became of them. The issue of missing students is not mentioned in the agreement.

“Nobody has mentioned the children that passed away or weren’t sent home. Some weren’t even registered,” a teary-eyed Shirley Roach said. "There should be a recognition of them because they were there and their parents never saw them again. They never came home."